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As Minister of the Environment in the Government of the Alliance 2011-2014, Lena Ek participated, among other things, in the development of guidelines to increase biodiversity and measures to achieve the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, including through more protected forests and alternative forestry.
Since becoming president of Sweden’s largest forest owners organization, Södra skogsägarna, in April 2016, she has repeatedly protested that the Swedish Forestry Agency in the same year began to openly publish planned logging on its map services. digital, something that has been requested by environmental organizations.
The maps ”allow other actors in addition to the authority to exercise legal supervision over the activities of the forest owner. It creates mistrust in the whole system. The application of forest policy must be based on respect and trust, ”according to Södra’s press release last year.
– There are no justifiable reasons why the authority would unnecessarily expose people’s business activities, Ek says in the press release.
The result came despite the matter being decided in court, all the way to the highest court.
Administrative law in Jönköping in 2019 declared that the information may be of interest to “individuals, authorities, organizations and banks and more”. It fulfills an important social function and the personal data constituting forest property cannot be considered privacy sensitive.
Herman Sundqvist, Director General of the Swedish Forestry Agency.
Photo: Patrik Svedberg
The verdict was appealed – The Supreme Administrative Court issued it last year. The Director General of the Swedish Forestry Agency, Herman Sundqvist, tells DN:
– The question is resolved – we have the right to publish the information.
Lena Ek has also lobbied against the Riksdag, when the government in 2016 wanted to investigate how forest management legislation should align with the Aarhus Convention, the UN Convention linking the environment and human rights. It gives the public the right to information, participate in decisions and the opportunity for judicial review in environmental matters.
In an open letter to all members, Ek wrote that if the public can appeal the logging, “the right of disposition that comes with the property is undermined.”
On the positive side of the state forestry investigation that took place last year was that it is proposed that the inventory and registry of key biotopes of the Swedish Forestry Agency, areas with high natural values that favor the species of the red list, disappear, says Ek , who is critical of proposals for knowledge requirements and criminal responsibility.
– It means an increase administrative burden and deterioration of legal certainty, he told the Skogsaktuellt newspaper.
Lena Ek is also one of the creators of the “Balancing Commission”, which Södra formed together with, among others, Holmen and SCA. The organization believes that the transition to a sustainable society is hampered by environmental legislation, such as the enforcement of the Registered Key Biotope and Species Protection Ordinance that stop logging.
Herman Sundqvist It highlights that it is the voluntary certification systems, mainly FSC, in which the forestry companies themselves have been involved in developing, which do not allow the felling of key biotopes between their companies and wood buyers.
– It has been misrepresented that in some contexts it is alleged that “the State confiscates land”, but this is not the case.
Leif Öster, a long-time information manager and communicator in the forestry industry and an expert in forestry research, is critical.
– I think it is serious that Lena Ek, as the center-right environment minister, has decided to invest heavily in biodiversity, and is now launching the Balance Commission, which in principle goes against what the Party of the Center 2014 wanted to achieve.
Daniel Naurin, Professor of Political Science.
Photo: Samir Soudah
Daniel Naurin is a professor of political science at the University of Oslo and the University of Gothenburg and has long researched lobbying and the relationship between politics and law.
– It is worrying with former ministers who pass and work as lobbyists in the private business sector. It happens all the time and there are no rules against it. If it becomes a culture and a norm, there is a risk that today’s ministers envision a future in the private business sector that they are tasked with regulating, which may mean positioning themselves in a way that benefits them rather than take public considerations into account. bill.
DN has sought out Lena Ek, who declines an interview.
